


An Actual Confession

by BelleofHell



Series: Doug/Dylas Confession [2]
Category: Rune Factory (Video Games), Rune Factory 4
Genre: Friendship, Love Confessions, M/M, Matchmaking, bad confessions lol, some background Margaret/Forte
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-11
Updated: 2019-04-11
Packaged: 2020-01-11 22:06:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,892
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18433052
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BelleofHell/pseuds/BelleofHell
Summary: Margaret finally got Doug on board to confess to Dylas. She's a got a few ideas as to how they're gonna do it. Maybe one will work!A sequel to my fic "Confession". I definitely suggest reading that before reading this one!





	An Actual Confession

**Author's Note:**

  * For [copernicusjones](https://archiveofourown.org/users/copernicusjones/gifts).



“Aren’t you and Dylas pretty close? Why are you bothering me instead of him?”

“Because, Doug, he’s shy. You, on the other hand, are _definitely_ not shy,” Margaret explained without looking up from her notebook. It was a weird notebook, shaped like a triangle for some reason. She probably swiped it from Arthur’s study.

“I dunno if I’d call him shy,” Doug said from his spot on his bed. He was bored. Margaret had been over for a good half hour or so, sitting at his desk and scribbling furiously in the notebook.

“What would you call him then?” Margaret still didn’t look up.

“A social disaster.”

“See? I told you the two of you have things in common.” This time she did look up, a small smirk on her face. It only lasted for a second before she once again focused on the notebook.

Doug pouted. “Hey!”

Margaret giggled. “Sorry.”

“No, you’re not,” Doug said with an eyeroll. And, honestly? Doug didn’t really mind Margaret poking fun at him. He kind of liked their newfound friendship. Not that they weren’t friends before, but they sure didn’t go out of their way to hang out one-on-one. Doug liked the new development. Not that he’d ever admit it.

There was a few minutes of silence before the scratching of the pencil stopped and Margaret set down the notebook, looking pleased. “There. That should do it.”

Doug’s head perked up. “Huh?”

Margaret faced him, sporting one of the largest grins Doug had ever seen. “I’ve come up with some _excellent_ ways for you to confess to Dylas.”

And all at once, the calm that had settled over Doug disappeared. His stomach felt like it flipped over and his body went tense. He knew all along that that was what she was doing, but it still felt borderline unsettling to hear it out loud. “Oh, you really wanted to follow through with that.”

“Of _course_. You two will be far less annoying once you’re actually dating. Besides,” Margaret tilted her head to the side and her smile became softer. “I want you two to be happy.”

All of a sudden Doug felt bad for dragging his heels through this process. The voice in his head, who sounded a lot like Granny Blossom, told him to say something nice. “Oh… Well, thanks, Margaret,” was his lame attempt.

“You can call me Meg.”

“Huh?” Man, he sure as hell wasn’t getting any bonus points for sounding smart today.

“Call me Meg. Most of my friends do.” Margare- no, Meg, held the notebook in a deathgrip and her smile turned downright mischievous. Damn her. “Now, I have a few plans I want us to try.”

-

“This is stupid.”

“It is _not_. It’s romantic!”

Doug glared at the dish in his hands. It was a shitty looking Lover Sashimi (Doug cringed every time he heard Meg say _lover_ ) that Meg spent way too long talking him through making. “It looks bad,” he grumbled.

Meg rested a hand on his shoulder and gave him a sympathetic grin. “But _you_ made it, and that’s what matters.”

Doug wasn’t sure he believed that. If it were him, he’d want a dish that actually tasted good over one someone he cared about slaved away for hours making, putting a lot of thought and care into every action, even if it didn’t turn out the prettiest.

Nevermind. Maybe Meg was right. _Maybe_ this wouldn’t be so bad.

Doug and Meg stood next to the restaurant, hidden off the the side. It honestly made Doug feel a little creepy, but whatever. Dylas’ shift was ending any minute now and Meg said it would be a good time to give him his present. He trusted Meg. But then again, Meg and Forte still weren’t an item, so maybe he shouldn’t trust her. Maybe she was just sticking her nose where didn’t belong. Maybe she didn’t know what she was talking about. Gods, this was going to be a disaster.

“There he is! Go!” Doug was yanked from his panicked thoughts by Meg pushing him towards the restaurant door. And, oh gods, Dylas had just walked through them. Shit.

Thank the gods he stopped before he hit Dylas. But maybe he would’ve preferred to run into him, because now Dylas was looking at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Uh, take this!” Doug winced at his own shouting and shoved the dish into Dylas’ hands.

There was a beat of silence before Dylas spoke up. “What is this?”

Frustration grew in the pit of Doug’s stomach. What was it? What the hell did it look like? “It’s a L-Lover Sashimi,” he just barely managed to choke out the word ‘lover’. “Or is your horse brain too small to see that?” Okay, maybe he shouldn’t have said that.

But the words were already out and Dylas’ face turned an unhealthy shade of red, expression going from confused to enraged. “Is this some kind of joke?” he sputtered. “This looks like you stuck it in a blender. I don’t want your damn leftovers!” He shoved the dish back into Doug’s hands, storming off towards the bathhouse.

Doug stared off after Dylas for a moment. That went worse than he had even imagined.

“I’m sorry, Doug.”

Said dwarf jumped when Meg placed a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. She blinked rapidly, clearly trying to keep her eyes from tearing up.

“Whoa, Meg, don’t worry about it!” Doug insisted. Yeah, it was kind of a bummer, but nothing to cry about. “Me and Dylas are like that all the time. It’s nothing knew.”

Meg pouted. “I guess.” With renewed fire in her eyes, she straightened back up and removed her hand from Doug’s shoulder. “That just means we have to try even harder, huh? Time to pull out all the stops!”

Doug’s reassuring smile turned nervous. “Right…” he drew out. “And what exactly is the next plan?”

With a disturbing gleam in her eye and a downright devilish smile, Meg shot him a wink and said, “I’ll tell you tomorrow.”

-

“No fucking way.”

“It’ll be so _romantic_ , though. Who wouldn’t love to be serenaded?”

“Fine, but who the hell actually wants to _do_ the serenading? It’s not happening. I’d rather that horse stomp me to death with his hooves.”

“You’re being dramatic,” Meg crossed her arms, clearly frustrated.

“Oh, am I? Please tell me about all the times you’ve successfully serenaded someone one-on-one.”

And bulls-eye. He got her. Her face set into immediate panic at having been called out. He could win this fight and not have to _serenade_ anyone, no problem!

It was a cool fall evening. The sun had just set and the air was just chilly enough to be unpleasant. Most sane people were at home relaxing, but not them. No, Doug and Meg got the lake all to themselves.

“Hello?”

Or maybe one other person too.

If Meg looked panicked before, she now looked like someone told her Dylas quit working at the restaurant and she had to watch Porco all by herself from now on.

Gods, even his similes involved Dylas. He was pathetic.

“Oh no,” Meg breathed out, barely a whisper. “He wasn’t supposed to come for another fifteen minutes! We were supposed to practice!”

Doug was lost, but had a sinking suspicion that he probably would rather be lost than actually know what was going on in this situation. “What?”

Meg took a deep breath before answering quickly. “I left an anonymous note for Dylas to meet someone here but he came early so now we can’t practice your singing! I know you at least know _part_ of a romantic song, so just sing and don’t worry about being bad. It will be heartfelt because it’s from you. Good luck!”

With that, Meg darted out of sight, behind the house that resided on the lakefront.

Oh, he was going to _kill_ her.

“Doug?”

Doug’s head snapped towards the lake’s entrance, and sure enough, Dylas stood there looking bewildered.

“Did you… Did you leave that note for me?” Dylas’ eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Doug was shocked at how… calm Dylas sounded at the idea. Like Doug leaving him a letter telling him to meet up in secret _wasn’t_ completely ridiculous, and Doug didn’t know how to feel about that.

It made his gut scrunch up painfully, apparently. Doug met Dylas’ gaze and somehow that made it even worse. Doug had no idea how to describe the look in the other boy’s eyes. Of course Meg had been assuring him throughout this whole ordeal that Dylas liked him back, but something about that felt so… unreal. How could Dylas _possibly_ like Doug back?

Doug felt like he was close to getting the answer to that question, and that terrified him.

And then Doug remembered he was supposed to be _singing_ , dear gods.

He couldn't do it. There was no way.

So he ran.

-

Doug was sprawled out over his bed, face hidden in his pillow so he could pretend he wasn’t bright red from embarrassment. He’d run straight home from the lake and decided he was ready to die. Whatever deity that was out there had his full permission end his existence. He’d thank them.

Then there was a soft knock on his door.

Doug lifted his head just enough to see an obviously guilt-ridden Margaret. “Go away,” he huffed, then buried his face back into his pillow.

“Can we talk, please? I’ll only take a moment.”

Doug groaned. “Fine. Make it quick or whatever.”

He heard Meg take a deep breath. “I just want to apologize. I’ve meddled far too much. I should have let you pursue Dylas at your own pace, if it all.”

Doug looked up from his pillow again. Meg was twirling the tips of her hair in her fingers, clearly anxious. “You’re a control freak,” he stated.

Meg laughed sheepishly. “So I’ve been told.” She looked a bit lost as to what to say next after that, and Doug’s insides pinched uncomfortably. Meg didn’t deserve to feel so bad about the whole thing.

Doug finally sat up fully and looked Meg in the eye. “Your apology’s accepted, but you didn’t really need to give one at all.”

Meg’s forehead wrinkled up in confusion. “Aren’t you mad?”

Doug shrugged. “The situation was embarrassing, yeah,” he admitted. And gods, so was what he was about to admit. “But in the moment I… wasn’t really thinking about how I was supposed to be singing to him. I was thinking about how it was the perfect moment to tell him how I felt, but I was too scared to even do that.” Doug shrugged. “You’ve tried really hard to help me, and I appreciate it. I’m man enough to say that. But maybe me and Dylas just aren’t a pair that’s meant to click.” It hurt to admit, but it was the grim possibility he had been wrestling with ever since he entered the safety of his room, breathless.

“Oh, Doug, that’s not true.” Pity was evident in Meg’s voice, which he wasn’t a fan of, but he let her sit next to him on the bed anyway. “I have something I need to tell you,” she admitted once she got comfortable.

Doug raised an eyebrow. “What?”

Meg took another deep breath. “Before I confronted you about your feelings, I confronted Dylas.

Doug’s heart stilled. “You what?”

“I tried to convince him to confess to you, but he wouldn’t do it.”

A small bit of anger started bubbling up in Doug again. “If he wasn’t interested then why’d you try to get us together?”

“Doug, I told you that Dylas likes you back. I’m not going to tell you everything he told me, as much as I’d like to just shove you two together. But I _promise_ I wasn’t trying to set you up for failure. He didn’t believe me when I insisted you must like him back. That’s why I thought you should be the one to confess.”

Doug was silent. His momentary anger had vanished, but he still didn’t know where to go from here. “You had some pretty good ideas,” he tried.

Meg scrunched up her face in disgust. “You can tell me serenading him was a terrible idea. I realize that now.”

Doug grinned. “Okay, yeah, it was. But making him sashimi was a good idea. It just went to shit.”

A smile finally formed on Meg’s face. “I’m glad you think so,” she said. “But I still should have stayed out of it.” Her face suddenly turned red. “B-besides, I was mostly using methods I’ve thought about being used on me.”

The image of Forte attempting to serenade someone was too funny. Doug couldn’t help the laugh that escaped him, which Meg returned with a glare.

There was another brief moment of silence before Meg spoke up again. “I have one more thing to tell you,” she admitted.

Doug groaned. “Oh gods. What now?”

“Well…” Meg started, clearly nervous. “After you ran, I came out from hiding and talked to Dylas.”

Doug’s head fell into his hands and he let out another groan. “What did you say to him?”

“Not a lot, I promise,” Meg assured. “I told him the note was from me and that he should just go home. Then I followed you here.”

Doug raised his head from his hands. “So you didn’t tell him about the plan?”

Meg shook her head. “No, but if I’m being honest…” she trailed off, took a deep breath, then continued. “I think he figured it out anyway.”

“Yeah. I did.”

Doug and Meg’s heads snapped towards the door. There stood Dylas, hand raised like he had planned to knock to get their attention, but decided to talk instead.

With wide eyes, Meg stuttered out, “I-I should probably go.” She hastily got off the bed and maneuvered around Dylas to get out of the room. She briefly looked back at Doug with a look in her eyes that clearly said _good luck_. Then, she was gone.

“How much of that did you hear?” Doug asked. He hated how small his voice was, but honestly, he was so tired of being argumentative at this point.

“Not everything,” Dylas said. “Just the last part.”

A flush crept up Doug’s face. He begged it to go away. “You know what we were trying to do, then?”

Dylas nodded slowly. He was still standing awkwardly in the doorway. Doug almost wanted to roll his eyes. Surely Meg was wrong. There was no way he was as socially inept as this horse-brain. Doug patted the bed next to him, the same spot Meg occupied just a minute ago. Luckily Dylas got the message and sat next to Doug.

“You left the door open,” Doug couldn’t help but grumble.

He was pretty sure he saw Dylas’ right eye twitch. “Blossom isn’t here anyway,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

Doug crossed his arms and didn’t answer, his usual response when Dylas was right in one of their arguments. “Well, what’d you come here for?”

Dylas’ face morphed from familiar frustration back to uncomfortable. “When Meg came out from hiding… Everything made sense.”

Doug quirked an eyebrow. “Care to explain?”

Dylas groaned. “I think you know what I mean.”

“Oh, come on!” Doug’s irritation skyrocketed. He stood quickly, his newfound energy not allowing him to sit around. The past few days had been stressful as hell and was sick of he and Dylas dancing around each other like a stupid chipsqueek mating ritual. Was this how the entire town had felt the whole time?

Dylas stood as well, seemingly fueled by Doug’s rage. “Well what do you want me to say?” he practically shouted.

“Tell me you like me or something!” Were the words that came out of Doug’s mouth, much to his brain’s dismay a few seconds later. A tense silence filled the room, filled with anger, confusion, and maybe something else.

Neither knew what to say. Luckily, Doug’s body decided to move for him again. He grasped the front of Dylas’ stupid jacket thing and yanked him down. Their lips met in an uncomfortable crash for only a moment before Doug pushed Dylas away again.

Despite the kiss only being a peck, both boys were breathing heavily. Like they had just run for miles. Or did… something else that Doug tried not to think about right that second.

Before Doug’s brain could catch up to everything that was going on, Dylas pulled him in for another kiss. This one was a little better. It was rough, as you’d expect from Dylas, but-

Oh, gods. He _expected_ something out of Dylas’ kisses. Doug really did have it bad.

Instead of focusing on that any longer, Doug let himself get swept away in the kiss. One hand clung to the back of Dylas’ jacket while the other latched onto his hair, pulling a moan out of the taller man. Doug ate it up, pushing against Dylas until he didn’t know where one of them ended and the other began.

He didn’t even notice when the back of Dylas’ knees hit the bed until they both toppled over, only briefly interrupting their makeout session that hopefully would continue going on for _much_ longer that night.

He’d definitely be thanking Meg later.

**Author's Note:**

> This is a birthday present for the wonderful copernicusjones! Thank you for helping me stay motivated with all of my fic writing!
> 
> It's a little late, but I'm happy with how it turned out! Hopefully I caught all the typos. I was pretty ready to be done with this and get it up lol
> 
> A Kudos and/or comment is always appreciated!


End file.
